Manitas de Cerdo

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A key objective of this blog is to bring you traditional Mexican recipes unlikely to find in US Mexican restaurants. My experience using “patas de cerdo” is using them in my recipe for Mexican menudo. As a kid pickled pigs feet were always a treat. The last time I enjoyed eating a dish with manitas was in Madrid Spain. I enjoyed the most delicious and rich “cocido Madrileño”. The stock for cocido is made of meat bones and pig’s trotters.

Manitas de cedo in Mexico are usually prepared with sauces ranging from tomatillo salsa verde, chile colorado, and chile chipotle. I chose to make a Hatch green chile version of manitas. By the way, start looking for fresh New Mexico Hatch chile in your neighborhood starting in August.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients

Serves 4

2 manitas de cerdo. Request the butcher to split then cut each half in 3 pieces

½ whole onion for cooking manitas;

1 medium onion chopped for finished dish

Several sprigs of fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon crumbled dry oregano leaves

4 cloves of garlic

3 bay leaves

10 pepper corns

4 roasted Hatch chile verde, cut 1 inch strips

3 large roma tomatoes, chopped into 1 ½ inch pieces

Salt and pepper

Preparation

Manitas

Rinse manitas and place in a large soup pot. Add the ½ whole onion, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, oregano, bay leaves, pepper corns and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cover with water. Bring the pot to boiling, remove foam. Simmer for 2 ¼ hours covered. Remove manitas from the broth and set aside. Permit broth to cool then pass the broth through a sieve and discard the solids. Set broth aside for later use.

Finished dish

Sauté chopped onions in a large soup dish or deep sauce pan for 4 minutes until soft. Add two cloves of minced garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add Hatch chile, simmer 2 minutes, add chopped tomatoes and simmer for 4 minutes.